Data on Protest in China
Protest happens all the time and not all of it is repressed
Washington DC 17 Aug 2023
A friend of Thirdoffset sent in this concise London School of Economics blog posting that shares scholarly analysis of protest in the PRC that is well worth reading. Key points follow:
The China Labour Bulletin’s Strike Map recorded 679 labour protests in the first half of this year alone. In its first year of operation, the China Dissent Monitor has already recorded 1500 instances of protest. The Wickedonna database of protest events recorded over 70,000 cases between 2013-2016. For something so rare, protests happen a lot in China.
Research has found that 1) Not all protests are repressed, 2) There is a pattern to which protests are repressed and which not, and 3) Citizens are able to use patterns of repression and responsiveness to assess whether or not to risk an act of public protest.[5] Less attention has been paid, however, to what comes after repression or not-repression.[6] A growing body of literature focuses on “concessions”, but not all protest management practices fit comfortably into the binary logic of repression versus concessions.[7]China scholars are particularly well placed to expand our understanding of protest management practices under authoritarianism. Chinese local governments provide an entire portfolio of diverse techniques and innovative responses to study.
To read the full commentary go here: Popular protest won’t bring down the Chinese regime